Document Actions

Restoring Myrtle Creek, Unleashing Community Spirit

Thanks to Sierra Club Malaspina, Myrtle Creek Stewards and the Powell River Sea Cadets, Coho salmon are returning to their ancestral spawning grounds in upper Myrtle Creek.

Coho salmon. Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry

This fall, for the first time in decades, Coho salmon are returning all the way to ancestral spawning grounds in the upper Myrtle Creek near Powell River, beyond a 1950s dam that was previously blocking access to spawners.

Sierra Club Malaspina teamed up with Myrtle Creek Stewards and the Powell River Sea Cadets to install a fish ladder suitable for both adult and juvenile fish. Come spring, a rearing pool above the dam will provide the right habitat for the fry to grow and put on weight before they head out to sea.

Fish ladder. Photo: Ana Simeon

Fourteen Sea Cadets aged 12 to 17 participated in the restoration project alongside seasoned watershed veterans. Myrtle Creek Stewards Dave Dyck and Dick Trichler trained the cadets on the safe use of power tools. Under the direction of their officer, Lt Dave McLennan, the Cadets cleared underbrush, dug and raked soil and gravel, and drilled holes in the cement dam to attach the ladder.

Why is restoration important? With the coolest water temperature of all the salmon streams in the region, Myrtle Creek bears a genetically unique run of Coho – a rarity on the Sunshine Coast where many creeks have lost their native stocks. Preserving genetic diversity of salmon is crucial to their adaptation to climate change: the more genetic diversity is preserved, the stronger the chance of survival. “The future of salmon depends on the preservation of wild streams like Myrtle,” says Esther Dyck of Sierra Powell River.

Equally important are the social benefits – community cohesion, intergenerational relationships and fostering a culture of valuing nature’s provision and spending time outdoors. In a very immediate and experiential way, restoration projects help build a culture that cherishes and values the gifts of the natural world. By doing, we learn and create new patterns of behaviour and relationship.

Says Sea Cadet Tylis Sliwinski (17): “The best part of the project was knowing this is making a big difference to those fish – giving their spawning grounds back to them. As I hammered the nails in I had this sense of gratitude.”

Ultimately, this is the promise of restoration: by restoring a salmon stream we restore ourselves and our communities. We develop a commitment to place, a loyalty and affection to the stream and fish and forest. We become a culture capable of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship to land.

Interested in learning more about Sierra Club BC local groups? Read more here or contact Ana.